Acquisition(s)

    LONDON SCOTTISH BANK PLC                            

                 Deferred Consideration for the acquisition of                 

                          Sterling Direct Finance Ltd                          

On 7 February 2002 London Scottish Bank plc (LSB) announced the acquisition of
the entire issued share capital of Sterling Direct Finance Ltd (Sterling), a
secured lending broker based in Southend on Sea, Essex.

Under the terms of the acquisition agreement, LSB paid an initial consideration
of £5.795m with further consideration payable of up to a maximum of £7.5m
subject to the achievement of pre-defined financial targets over the two years
following the date of acquisition.

The first of the pre-defined financial targets was achieved in August 2002 when
consideration of £2.0m became payable to the vendor, Marc Bertola. Further
consideration amounting to £4.4m has now become payable on the achievement of a
pre-defined financial target for the year ended 6 February 2003. This
consideration has been satisfied by the issue on 20 March 2003 of 4,083,889 new
LSB ordinary shares of 10p each, ranking pari passu with the existing LSB
shares. Application will be made to the UK Listing Authority for the new LSB
shares to be admitted to the Official List and to the London Stock Exchange for
the new LSB shares to be admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange's
market for listed securities. Marc Bertola has agreed to retain all LSB shares
received as consideration for a minimum of 12 months following their issue.

Final further consideration may become payable over the next 12 months up to a
maximum of £1.1m and will be met by the issue of new LSB shares at the
prevailing market rate at the date of issuance.

Enquiries to Roy Reece / Mark Tattersall - 0161 830 2306

20 March 2003



END